


Hell's Not What You Think It Is

by rravii



Category: VIXX
Genre: Cheating, Emotional Abuse, F/M, M/M, Mentions of Suicide, Verbal Abuse, but in the sense that she's a horrible person, demon!Leo, domestic abuse, mentions of depression, possibly also demon!girl but not in the sense that she's a demon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-28
Updated: 2016-02-28
Packaged: 2018-05-23 13:10:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6117465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rravii/pseuds/rravii
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>His name is Kim Wonshik and he is nothing like Jung Taekwoon was.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hell's Not What You Think It Is

**Author's Note:**

> i'm so sorry wonshik. i love u.
> 
> this is a lil fucked up, so proceed with caution

The living have such a silly, naive image of what hell is. 

They picture it as a volcanic field, a dark and broody place with the color scheme of black, brown, red and orange, where fires are lit from nothing and reach up to the top of the cave-like space, where people scream and suffer, either burning alive or being tortured to demon-like beings, for all of eternity. 

What it really is, is purgatory. 

Hell is being stuck, being unable to move on to the next plane of existence. 

Hell is being shaped into a different being - one that cannot be seen or heard, but one that can affect the objects around it.

Hell is being tied to the very same apartment you died in, unable to leave.

Hell is watching your former lover, the one that screamed terrible things at you the night before, things she didn't mean, and cried over you when she found your lifeless body the following morning, mourn alone, without being able to comfort her in any way. 

Hell is watching her slowly coming to, and moving on with her life. 

Hell is watching her remove every trace of your existence from her life, taking all of your belongings and memories in the form of pictures and notes, and placing them in a box.

Hell is watching her leave the house with the box and returning empty handed. 

Hell is watching her laugh again, smile again, enjoy life again like you didn't mean anything to her. 

Hell is being incapable of doing anything as she brings another man into your home to take your place. 

His name is Kim Wonshik and he is nothing like Jung Taekwoon was. The only thing they have in common is their similar height and their passion for art. Wonshik is blonde, Taekwoon had black hair. Wonshik's body is littered with tattoos, while Taekwoon didn't have a single one, and had no intention to get one, either. Wonshik is loud sometimes, Taekwoon was quiet. Wonshik smiles and laughs with her, he talks to her, he's a lot more open from the get-go than Taekwoon ever was with her, and he listens to her well too. Wonshik hugs her, caresses her cheeks, kisses her, and if Taekwoon were still alive, if he were still a human, his blood would be boiling. 

She seems to be happy with him. She used to be happy with Taekwoon too, until she began complaining that he was making her unhappy. He was too quiet, too broody, too closed off, not closed off enough, not present enough, not loving enough, not satisfying her enough, not enough, not enough, _not enough_. 

Wonshik is enough. She tells him this, too, and how much she adores him, how much she loves him, and he loves her too. They kiss and hold each other and make love with one another and Taekwoon can't leave, he can't look away - he's forced to stay and watch. 

His name is Kim Wonshik and he is replacing Jung Taekwoon. He is doing everything right for her, everything Taekwoon couldn't do for her. He is making her happy, happier than she ever was with Taekwoon, so he decides to drive him out. She is Taekwoon's, she loved Taekwoon, and he tried to be enough for her, he tried so hard but it wasn't enough and it eventually lead him to leave the human world and exist in this in-between hell, and he'll be damned if he sits by and watches someone else waltz into her life like Taekwoon had never existed. 

He has to do it slowly, however. He can't just wreck havoc and drive him out that way. He can't risk her leaving, too. If she leaves, he won't be able to follow. 

It starts off with making objects fall to the ground and doors suddenly shutting. It startles both of them every time it happens, and they always blame it on something. Maybe it was the wind - there's probably an open window somewhere, maybe the object was too close to the edge - it must have been at tipping point for a while. Taekwoon does it randomly at any given hour of the day - when they're eating breakfast, when they're watching TV, when they're making love, when they're sleeping, when she is in the shower and Wonshik is in the living room. 

He also only ever does it when Wonshik is visiting. He's spending a lot of time at her apartment, but he also has a place of his own. He lives with a friend named Hongbin, he tells her. Hongbin visits the place with Wonshik twice and Taekwoon behaves. After his second visit, just as he leaves, Taekwoon makes a book fall to the floor, and Wonshik jumps. There's a nervous aura radiating off him as he goes to pick it up and he hesitates before putting it back - it's not an object that could have just randomly fallen. It had been on the bookshelf, wedged tightly in a row of books, leaving an obvious gap. 

The morning after, Taekwoon shuts the bathroom door, and Wonshik pipes up. 

"I think your apartment might be haunted."

She scoffs at him. "You don't believe in that bullshit, do you?"

Wonshik ducks his head and presses his lips together. "I don't know. Maybe." 

"You're ridiculous." She comments. "There's no such thing as ghosts or demons. It's just in your head." 

"There's so much we don't know about life, though." Wonshik responds and Taekwoon can at least give him points for that one. He sounds like he's going to say more, but she cuts him off. 

"Don't be an idiot. When you die, you're dead, and that's that."

Hearing her speak those words anger Taekwoon. She says it so firmly, like she doesn't believe in anything else, but she's wrong. Taekwoon is dead but he's still here - he's still here and he still loves her but she's forgotten him, she's moved on, she's loving someone else the way she used to love Taekwoon before he stopped being enough for her. He gets so angry at being forgotten that he acts on impulse to make them aware that he is still here, he is still living in some form, he's not gone and he will not be forgotten, so he slams the bedroom door shut. Instantly, Wonshik rises from his seat. 

"I have to go."

"You can't be serious." She tells him, and instructs him to sit down again. 

"No, really, doors don't just shut on their own. I think I need to go home for a bit."

"The window's open, babe. It's just a draft." She informs him, but Wonshik doesn't give in. 

"Look, I haven't seen Hongbin in a while, and I have a few things at home I need. I'll come over again tonight if you'd like?" Wonshik explains himself.

She is quiet for a few seconds, and then very stiffly says, "Fine. Okay, yeah, leave." 

"Hey, no," Wonshik begins and lowers himself back into his seat, reaching his hand out for hers, but she pulls her hands off the table and refuses to look at him. "I'll just be a moment, I just want to drop by and see my friend for a bit, I'll come right back, okay? Is it okay?" 

She bursts into tears and Taekwoon has to keep himself from lashing out again. He has to keep this subtle if his plan is supposed to work, so he's forced to watch them as his anger silently starts to boil. 

"I'm so lonely, Wonshik, you're always so busy and I don't feel like we spend enough time together." She sobs and almost instantly, Wonshik gets out of his seat so he can walk around the table to her, and he embraces her, holding her tightly with concern written all over his face and Taekwoon feels nothing but disgust. "I love you so much but sometimes I get scared that you don't actually love me." 

"Hey, hey, _of course_ I love you, I love you so much, babe, I do. I'm sorry - I didn't know you felt like that, but we can work on it, I'll try to spend more time with you, okay? Do you want to come with me back to my place?"

She shakes her head but doesn't let go of him. "Hongbin hates me. I don't know what I did wrong, but he _hates_ me! He's always glaring at me when you aren't looking and he's always so cold to me - I don't want to be around him, Wonshik." 

"He doesn't hate you - I'll talk to him about that, okay?" Wonshik pulls away and kisses her briefly, still keeping her relatively close to him. "I love you."

"Don't leave." Is all she says. 

"Okay." He responds, and keeps his word. 

A week later, she asks him to move in with her. Wonshik's a student and works part-time at a clothing store and he tells her he doesn't bring in much income, but she starts crying and tells him she used to have a roommate that moved away, leaving her with a too high of a rent, and that every little bit helps. Taekwoon is struck by her words, uncertain how to handle having heard her lie like this about who used to live there with her, but as Wonshik accepts to move into the apartment, into Taekwoon's apartment, he quickly channels his anger towards him.

The tormenting doesn't become more frequent, so things stay the same for a few months. What does go up in frequency, however, are the arguments between the two. It starts off slowly, with just petty things here and there, but as time passes, their disagreements turn into full-blown arguments.

At first it's almost always about money - Wonshik isn't doing enough to bring in money. He attempts to solve the issue by taking on extra weekend shifts, but then the argument turns towards him not spending enough time with her. She complains that he goes too many times out with his friends, and whenever he tells her he's going to a party with them, or to a bar, she refuses to accompany him to them, claiming they don't like her, and accuses him of having intentions of cheating. He tries to solve the issue by going out less and letting her have full access to his phone, but she isn't satisfied until he stops going out all together. 

She's hard to please, Taekwoon is all too aware of that, and he can see that Wonshik is struggling, but he's furious that Wonshik always manages to fix the issue. Taekwoon couldn't. Every single time after they've had an argument, she doesn't touch upon it in the morning, but gets angry when Wonshik does. She cries and tells him that she loves him, that she's just trying to look out for him, that she's struggling, and every time, Wonshik apologizes to her, and tells her he loves her too, and will try to do better by her. 

Taekwoon could never manage to fix the issue. They'd argue and she'd behave like this, but Taekwoon couldn't always let go of things so easily. Sometimes she really hurt him, and he'd let her know about it, but he often ignored how he hurt her. He never told her he would try to do better, but he should have. Maybe their last moments together wouldn't have been nothing but arguments, in which she'd tell Taekwoon he wasn't enough. 

Taekwoon would always try to fix the issue, but he just wasn't enough. Wonshik tries to fix the issue, and sometimes, he's enough.

Time passes and they continue swapping between arguing and loving, and during one fight, she accuses Wonshik of having mental issues. The comment sparks an interest in Taekwoon and gives him an idea of how to up his own game in tormenting the man bringing so much pain to Taekwoon, who is unable to walk away from the situation. The morning after, before she's patched up with him, and after he's gotten back from one of his morning classes, Taekwoon arranges the magnetic letters on the fridge, that previously wrote out her name and Wonshik's, into writing out, _'Ur crazy'_. 

On an impulse, Wonshik lunges out and messes up the letters, but before his hand reaches the destination, Taekwoon changes it back to their names, so when Wonshik pulls back, he sees the remains of their names. He hesitates, steps back, and runs a hand through his hair, visibly looking distressed, and Taekwoon feels himself smiling. Very slowly, Wonshik comes up closer to the fridge, and rearranges the letters back into their names, taking his time to make sure everything is as perfect as it was. When he pulls away, he only walks a few steps away from the fridge, and then pulls out his phone. He scrolls through his contact list and stops over the name Hongbin, but hesitates again, and eventually just exits back to the home screen and puts his phone back into his pocket. 

Something about the action rubs Taekwoon the wrong way, making him hesitate in his mischief. It's just a moment and it passes, so he quickly starts up again with his antics. Very rarely and only when he's alone, he starts writing out messages to Wonshik with the magnets, each time mocking his deteriorating mental state. 

The fourth time Taekwoon arranges the magnets, he spells out, _'She doesn't love you'_. She doesn't, she loved Taekwoon and Taekwoon loved her, loves her still, and he's so bitter and angry that she's replacing him with this piece of shit who is everything Taekwoon hoped to be for her and so much more that he doesn't want to believe - cannot believe that she's moved on so soon after his death. It's only been ten months since he died yet here she is, in this man's arms, in Kim fucking Wonshik's arms, kissing him and loving him no matter how much Taekwoon does to break them apart, no matter how much he drives up Wonshik's stress levels to keep him on edge to make their fights even more difficult. 

Like always, Wonshik lunges out and messes up the letters, only to rearrange them back into their names. This particular morning, Taekwoon is in a particularly bad mood, because they spent all morning lying in each other's arms and making love and Taekwoon couldn't do anything but stand by and watch as Wonshik pleasured her in ways she always claimed Taekwoon couldn't, no matter how hard he tried, no matter how far he went out of his comfort zone just to please her. 

No matter how many times he rearranges the letters, no matter how long he spends on it, the words always spell out _'She doesn't love you'_. He becomes so focused on the task to make the letters write out their names, but no matter how hard he tries, and oh, he tries, he tries for so long, progressively getting more and more stressed out and angry as he tries, but he fails every time, the words refuse to spell out anything else despite all efforts, so eventually he just lets out a scream and backs away, calling out to the apartment.

"Stop torturing me, STOP!" 

He pants and walks back sluggishly and runs his hand through his hair, grabbing a fistful of it - he looks so tormented and Taekwoon feels satisfied. 

"What did I ever do to you, huh? I'm just trying to fucking live, fucking _stop_!"

"Wonshik?" She asks, standing in the doorway, wearing one of Wonshik's t-shirts that is big enough that it comes down to the middle of her thighs, her hair in a disarray, and _god,_ she looks beautiful. 

Wonshik turns to face her, still with a crazed look on his face, and starts to ramble about how the house is haunted. He backs up his claims with multiple stories of things Taekwoon's done, things she witnessed, and he's completely right, but she stares at him in agitated disbelief. He then tells her about the message on the fridge and points to it, but then sees that it's just a complete jumble, with a letter or two on the floor. 

"Do I need to take you to a mental institution? Wonshik, what the fuck is wrong with you?" She asks him as she approaches him and there's a bite to her voice. 

"No you don't- I'm not crazy, I swear, there's a fucking demon possessing this house or some shit, it's-"

Wonshik's words are cut off by a loud slap. She hits him with an open palm, directly across the face, and it completely silences him. 

"Shut the fuck up, crazy." She hisses at him, and proceeds to go on a ramble about how insane he's acting, about how lucky he is to have her, because no one else would ever put up with this. She tells him this is why he doesn't have any friends anymore, and that she's going to help him, but moving out of their apartment is out of the question. They're running tight for money as it is and this is the best solution for them. 

Wonshik remains silent the entire time she talks to him, only nodding when she requires him to respond in some way, and keeps his eyes on his feet. 

Taekwoon doesn't feel satisfied with this turn of events. She doesn't look as beautiful as she'd done just moments ago anymore, either. He doesn't understand why he's feeling like this, he should be happy that Wonshik is spiraling downwards into his own ruin, that was his intention after all, to break him so that she'd leave him. He figures it's because she said she'd help him instead of sending him away, but he can't shake off this feeling that something's not right. 

The exam period comes and goes and Wonshik does horribly - so horribly that he drops out of school and starts working full-time at the clothing store. She isn't happy with his decision, but he starts to bring in a bigger income. He only works like this for two or three weeks before she asks him to cut down and go back to working part-time for multiple reasons, including that she wants him to take care of the house, she doesn't like his coworkers, and she's afraid he'll cheat on her with the girls that frequently shop there. 

It's been happening progressively, little by little, but Taekwoon can tell that there's something different about Wonshik. He doesn't laugh or smile as much as he used to anymore, he doesn't reach out to her for affections as much anymore, and he sleeps a lot more. Sometimes he leaves earlier to go to work but Taekwoon can see him in the parking lot, just sitting silently and alone in his car until he has to drive to work. Eventually he stops doing that, because it starts up an argument in between the two where she accuses him of going early to cheat on him. 

Taekwoon doesn't know if Wonshik has been cheating, but he does know that _she_ has been cheating. She's been bringing a man home since Wonshik dropped out of school with the name Han Sanghyuk and their relationship seems to be purely physical. He comes home with her when Wonshik is away for work, they make love, and then the guy leaves. 

It's an odd shift and it makes Taekwoon feel uneasy, but he starts to feel concern towards Wonshik. It's strange, he's supposed to hate him for taking his spot, but seeing the man struggle so much leaves a feeling that Taekwoon isn't sure how to interpret. It's difficult to watch her bring someone else into what is meant to be their home, behind Wonshik's back, and make love to him in their bed. He feels different towards her after seeing her act like this, and begins to wonder if she ever did this to him. He feels like he should resent Sanghyuk for being able to be with her when Taekwoon can't, but he finds himself struggling to do so. He stops all antics, no more doors randomly shutting or objects falling or cryptic messages being left anywhere, but it doesn't seem to make things improve for Wonshik. 

Taekwoon doesn't fully realize the situation until after Wonshik comes home late one night - there was some kind of situation going on at the store which required it to be open until midnight, and Wonshik agreed to cover the shift. While he was at work, she asks Sanghyuk to come over, and so the two spend the night together in bed up until Wonshik returns home, only to walk in on Sanghyuk dressing himself, preparing to leave, while she lies in bed, naked. 

"What the fuck is this?" Wonshik asks, but his voice is flat. Sanghyuk looks like a deer trapped in headlights, looking between the two of them, and she just glares at Wonshik. Sanghyuk hurries putting on the rest of his clothes and leaves the room, but as he does so, he grabs Wonshik's arm and pulls him out of the doorway and into the living room. Wonshik harshly pulls his arm from his grip and glares at him, but Sanghyuk doesn't back off. 

"Dude, I had - I had _no_ idea that she had a boyfriend, she-she told me she was single." Sanghyuk explains and pauses, but Wonshik doesn't say anything, so he continues. "I am so sorry, I _never_ would have started anything with her if I'd known-"

"How long?" Wonshik cuts him off and the guy bites his lip, looking even more guilty.

"I- a month or so. I am _so_ sorry, I had no idea, if there's anything I ca-"

"Leave." Wonshik stiffly tells him, and Sanghyuk shuts his mouth. He nods and apologizes once again before rushing out of the apartment, leaving Wonshik standing there alone. He's angry, but he's also sad, just overbearingly sad, and when he returns to the room where she's picking up articles of clothing to put them back on, she doesn't even apologize. Instead, she starts blaming him for this, telling him that she had needs that weren't being satisfied so she had to seek them elsewhere. Wonshik just stands there silently as she goes on and on, talking about how much she loves him but how he forced her to do this because he's not enough, and that's when Taekwoon understands. 

Wonshik isn't good enough either and he's going down the same path Taekwoon went. 

Wonshik isn't the issue. 

She is. 

This becomes all the more apparent when Wonshik finally does speak up. 

"I think this isn't working out." 

She flies into a fit of rage, telling him that he can't leave her, that he's got nowhere to go, that no one else will ever love him, that she's the one protecting him and loving him and that he'll fall apart without her, that she is sacrificing so much and doing so much for him and that he's being disrespectful for throwing it in her face, that he's crazy and she's only trying to help him but it's so difficult on her. Her ranting turns into her begging him to stay, begging him to forgive her and expressing how much she loves him, but then goes back to telling him that no one else will ever love him and care for him like she does.

Wonshik gives in. He lets her grab his hand and pull him to bed, he lets her curl up against his chest, he tells her what she wants to hear - that he won't leave and they'll try to work it out. She promises him she'll stop seeing Sanghyuk, but for him to do that, he just has to love her more. It's agonizing for Taekwoon to have to stand by and listen to her crush him like this, and knowing there is nothing he can do. He can't go back to his previous antics, knowing that they will either just startle Wonshik too, or make her angry, so all he can do is position himself in the shadow in one of the corner of the room and watch the two of them lie in bed. 

She falls asleep fairly easily, but Wonshik doesn't. 

He keeps his eyes on the shadow in the corner. 

This moment changes everything and Taekwoon knows that, he knows what the issue is, he knows what is about to happen, and he knows he needs to get Wonshik out of there. He just doesn't know how. 

She doesn't appear as beautiful to him anymore. She starts to look ugly in his eyes and he starts to resent her, resent her for what she did to him, for what she's actively doing to Wonshik.

For the next week, Taekwoon is at a complete loss as to what to do. Wonshik is sleeping a lot and he doesn't leave the bed unless he needs to go to work or when she comes home. He doesn't shower unless she asks him to, and he doesn't eat unless she wants them to eat together. Taekwoon is terrified of arranging the letters on the fridge because of how he'd previously reacted, and he doesn't want to startle him anymore with loud noise. The only kind of connection he gets with Wonshik is when he takes a form in the shadows in the corner of their bedroom, because every night, Wonshik looks at the shadows until he falls asleep. 

Wonshik also isn't getting any better. They argue less, but it's not having any kind of impact on him. If anything, he's just slowly getting more and more worse, and Taekwoon is starting to get more and more desperate to reach out to him. 

Taekwoon doesn't intend to do it this way, but he finally does write out a message to Wonshik, and he does so using his own blood. It's late one night, she has already gone to bed, and Wonshik is alone in the bathroom, brushing his teeth. He moves the brush back and forth slowly, keeping his eyes on himself in the reflection. He looks downright lifeless - his hair has been dyed back to black because he couldn't bother making the effort to keep it blonde, his eyes are dull, there's no traces of joy on his face, and even though he's been getting more than enough sleep, he looks exhausted. 

He spits out the toothpaste and rinses the brush, placing it in the cup next to hers, and stands still for a moment, looking at his own reflection. He lets out a deep breath and places his elbows on the sink-counter, lowering his head into his hands, and lets his fingers run through his hair. 

Maybe it was seeing Wonshik look at his own reflection, taking in how horrible he looks, or maybe it was because Taekwoon took his own life in that very same bathroom, but he feels an urgency to the situation that causes him to write on the mirror with the only substance he can use. 

When Wonshik lifts his head again, he sees that the words, _'You need to leave her, Wonshik'_ , have been written on the mirror with blood. As expected, he's startled, and jumps back, almost injuring himself as he fumbles over his feet and his back hits the glass encasing the shower. Panic starts seeping in, and the first thing he does is beg. 

"Oh, god, oh please, please stop, I can't fucking take this, I can't-" 

As quickly as he can, Taekwoon writes out the words, _'You're not crazy'_. It seems to dampen the panic a little, especially because he lets Wonshik see the words being written out, but he still looks downright terrified. He doesn't say anything, he just keeps his back pressed against the glass, chest heaving as he pants, but at least he's not ran out of the bathroom yet. To put emphasis, and hopefully to get him talking again, Taekwoon writes a line underneath the word _need_. 

"I can't." Wonshik quietly says, hesitantly too, like he doesn't believe that he's giving into his own insanity by talking back to this made-up demon that lives in his head. Taekwoon wipes away the blood and writes out to him, _'Yes, you can.'_

"I _can't_ ," Wonshik emphasizes, but keeps his voice quiet, probably terrified that she'll hear him. "I love her, I do, but she- I don't want to leave but even if I did, I don't have anywhere I can go, all my money goes to the rent - I don't have any..." He trails off and lowers his head back into his hands, and silently, he begins to cry. His body shakes and he takes in quiet gasps and if Taekwoon still had a heart, he knows it would feel like someone has a hard grip on it. 

The feeling Taekwoon hasn't been able to place his finger on might be guilt. He realizes this now, as he watches Wonshik breaking down in front of him, that he's not entirely innocent in this. Even though she's the one who turned Wonshik into this mess, who has been abusing Wonshik, who had been abusing Taekwoon too, Taekwoon has been making things worse on Wonshik. He's been tormenting him and torturing him, thinking that he was the villain in the situation, but he'd just been blinded by her and was unable to see how the situation was playing out between the two of them until Wonshik started to remind Taekwoon too of himself. 

He's helped drive Wonshik to ruin, so now he has to help him get out of this situation. There's not much Taekwoon can do, being confined to the house and having Wonshik thinking that he's just a figment of his own insanity, but he has to try, he has to try to push through and give Wonshik ideas that will make him act upon them and get out of there before it's too late. 

So when Wonshik finally lifts his head up again, what he sees in the mirror isn't his reflection, but instead of that, he sees Taekwoon. Again, he looks visibly startled, but he doesn't jump away, nor does succumb to his fear. Instead, he seems to accept it, that Taekwoon is this demon that's been tormenting him all this time, be he real or a figment of his imagination. 

"Is this you?" Wonshik asks quietly, his eyes red-rimmed and voice a little raspy. Taekwoon can't talk as he appears, but he can still write these messages, so he simply reaches his hand up, tracing with his bloodied finger, and writes, _'Yes'_. 

"You've been doing all of this?" Wonshik asks after a moment in silence. "The doors, the objects falling, the letters on the fridge, the-the shadow?" 

Again, Taekwook writes out, _'Yes'_. 

Wonshik falls silent, so Taekwoon chooses the opportunity to get out his biggest reason as to why he's communicating with him.

_'I'm going to help you.'_

Wonshik stares at the words for a moment, but then quietly laughs, a bitter and humorless laughter. "You've been tormenting me for months and now you want to help me?"

Taekwoon understands the underlying message - how can he trust him after all this? He waits for a moment, mulling over his thoughts, trying to arrange words together in order to make the biggest impact on Wonshik, to make him see that he really does mean it, and settles on the words, _'If I wanted to kill you, I would have done that a long time ago.' ___

Blinking, Wonshik stares at the words, and subtly nods as he takes them in. His attention gets torn away as she calls out his name, asking what's taking him so long, and when he turns his head back to the mirror, the messages are gone, and his reflection is as it should be. Wonshik doesn't reply to her right away, but he rubs his face and quietly says to himself, "God, I'm really fucking losing it." 

As he walks out of the bathroom, he doesn't make an excuse, but he apologizes to her, and accepts her offer to get into bed too. Taekwoon takes the form of the shadow like he does every night, and Wonshik keeps his eyes on him until his eyelids become too heavy, like he does every night too, but this time, Wonshik doesn't look as exhausted. Maybe Taekwoon managed to reach to him, maybe he managed to spark some hope in him. It's a possibility, and it makes Taekwoon feel lighter.

Whatever Taekwoon managed to relight within Wonshik gets shut off again the morning after. She yells at him yet again for something insignificant and Wonshik shuts down and everything goes back to how it was. Maybe it was naive of Taekwoon to think that their conversation would change anything, but he's not about to give up yet. He realizes that he needs to do more, but in order to execute his plan, he needs Wonshik to be alone, and for him to be alone for at least a few hours. It's an agonizing wait and Taekwoon never seems to get an opening. If she's away, Wonshik is usually sleeping or unable to pull himself out of the bed, not leaving it until she shows up, or Wonshik is at work, or she is at home with him. 

It takes almost two weeks for him to be able to finally get to communicate with Wonshik again, which is something he only managed to do by putting Wonshik at huge risk if the plan would have failed - he repeatedly threw cups and plates and bowls and anything he could get his hands at on the floor until Wonshik got out of bed and into the kitchen. It was a poorly thought out plan, but their arguments had started up again and Wonshik's mood was only going further down the drain, so he had to act now and act fast. 

"Why are you doing this?" Wonshik asks quietly, carelessly walking barefoot into the kitchen where sharp pieces of glass litter the floor. By purposely moving the letters on the fridge visibly, Taekwoon managed to snag Wonshik's attention, and wrote out, _'Numbers'_. 

"I-I," Wonshik stutters, but then sighs, a deep, exhausted sigh, and rubs his face. "What?"

In an attempt to explain himself better, Taekwoon expands the word into a sentence, but due to the limitation of letters he has to use, moves the reoccurring letters from one designated place to another repeatedly. _'Get me numbers'_. 

Wonshik hesitates, but then drops his hand from his face down to his side. "We only have letters." 

This causes a dent into Taekwoon's plan, but nothing he can't work around. Instead, he arranges the letters to spell out a name. 

_'Cha Hakyeon'_. 

It's a long shot, but it's the best plan Taekwoon can think of in order to get Wonshik out of there, and immediately. 

Hakyeon was Taekwoon's best friend. He was something like Hongbin was to Wonshik, he guesses. Someone he loved dearly, someone who she claimed didn't like her, someone he stopped seeing at her request, someone who disappeared from his life. As far as Taekwoon was concerned, Hongbin hadn't tried to keep contact with Wonshik, but that's something Hakyeon always did, until the day he died. He'd text him, ask to meet up, ask how he was doing, how their relationship was, if he was okay. He didn't realize this until it was too late, but Hakyeon sensed something was wrong, he did so from the start and tried to cling to Taekwoon and talk some sense into him, but it was too late, Taekwoon didn't want to hear it - she'd dug her claw into his heart too deeply. 

Taekwoon doesn't know Hongbin well enough to encourage Wonshik to call him for help. He doesn't know how Hongbin would react to this turn of events, and he doesn't know how far Hongbin is willing to go to ensure his safety. But Taekwoon knows Hakyeon, he knows how caring and loving his friend is, he knows how concerned he was about their relationship, and he knows if Wonshik gets linked to him through her, Hakyeon will help him. 

Wonshik looks a little dumbfounded, so Taekwoon arranges the word _'call'_ in front of the name, but he seems to have gotten that message already since his expression doesn't change at all. He stands still for a little while, but then paddles through the glass, making some effort to walk carefully as he reaches over to the kitchen counter to grab a pen and some paper. On his way back to the kitchen table, his steps leave small traces of blood, but he doesn't seem to care much. 

Sitting down, Wonshik begins to silently write something down on the paper, and then holds it up, facing the fridge, which in itself is kind of a cute act, because Taekwoon isn't the fridge, but he quickly wipes away these silly, insignificant thoughts and focuses on the paper. Wonshik has written down the letters A to J, each of them representing the numbers 0 to 9. Substituting the letters for the numbers gives Taekwoon a way to write out Hakyeon's phone number, which he does, one number at a time which Wonshik writes down onto the paper. Once he's done, he simply just writes out, _'Call Cha Hakyeon'_ , again, to add some urgency to the matter. 

Wonshik dials in the numbers into his phone and then lifts it to his ear with a shaking hand. His breath is quickening and he's becoming quite nervous, but at least he's doing it. The phone rings once, twice, and gets picked up just before the third ringing. 

"Hello?" Taekwoon can hear Hakyeon say from the other line and somehow, he feels sadness and joy at the same time. 

Wonshik hesitates, nervousness taking over him, so Taekwoon tries to help him out, arranging the letters on the fridge furiously to do so quickly and bring Wonshik's attention to the fridge, and spells out _'Jung Taekwoon'_. 

The plan backfires as Wonshik blurts out in his stress, "Jung Taekwoon told me to call you," which causes Hakyeon to instantly hang up on him. If he had a body, Taekwoon would have face-palmed, but also realizes that he hasn't properly introduced himself by name to Wonshik. He doesn't know that _he_ , the demon possessing the house is Jung Taekwoon, the dead ex-boyfriend of Wonshik's current girlfriend, the one he's trying to leave, and Hakyeon's dead former best friend.

Almost instantly, Wonshik lets the phone fall from his hand and softly, starts to sob. His entire body is shaking and tears are streaming down his face rapidly, but there's nothing Taekwoon can do to comfort him - he can only guide him towards helping himself, and for that, he needs Wonshik's attention. He tries to arrange the letters to tell him to call Hakyeon again, but Wonshik doesn't notice, so he has to try for something more drastic, and goes back to his plan of smashing cups to gain his attention. 

It works, but not without startling Wonshik, who screams at him with tears streaming down his face, "Leave me alone, just fucking _leave me alone_!" 

Taekwoon responds by throwing another cup, which brings Wonshik's attention to the fridge. He frowns when he sees the message, but gives in when Taekwoon rearranges the letters to simply spell out, _'please'_. Wonshik waits for a minute or two to calm himself down, and then picks up the phone, dialing in the number again. 

Thankfully, Hakyeon picks up, but he's not pleased, and lets Wonshik hear it. "What?" He responds when he picks up, and again, Wonshik is at a loss for words. He turns his head towards the fridge, which Taekwoon takes as a cry for help, so he starts off by spelling out, _'your name'_. 

"M-My name is Kim Wonshik," He starts, but hesitates, uncertain what to say next, but as Taekwoon is figuring out the most efficient way to arrange the letters, Hakyeon responds. 

"Look, I don't know what you want or what kind of joke you're trying to run - it's not funny." 

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean harm, it's just-" Wonshik hesitates as Taekwoon finishes arranging the words on the fridge, which spell out, _'I'm dating Jung Taekwoon's ex'_. "I-I'm... I'm dating Jung Taekwoon's ex." 

Hakyeon is silent on the other line and Wonshik is increasingly getting more worried, so Taekwoon quickly arranges the letters to form a simple word. 

_'Help'_. 

"I need help." Wonshik says quietly, voice shaking a little as he speaks, but it kicks Hakyeon into gear. 

"Give me your address and I'll be over as quickly as I can." 

Wonshik gives him his address and mutters out a quiet 'thank you', and he looks like a burden has been lifted off his shoulders. Taekwoon feels more at ease, too, knowing that he's managed to push him into the right direction enough that he might start walking ahead by himself. 

"Are you safe? Is it okay that I hang up and you wait until I come over?" Hakyeon asks. There's something remarkable about him, about how he's completely willing to throw away whatever he was doing to go out of his way to ensure a stranger's safety. Taekwoon wishes that he hadn't tossed his friend's concerns aside when he was trapped in this situation, but knows there's nothing he can do about it now - so instead he should focus on being happy that he's managed to convince Wonshik to do what he should have done.

"Yeah." Wonshik mutters and Hakyeon hangs up. As soon as he does, Wonshik bursts out into tears again, this time much more heavily than he'd done, and it startles Taekwoon. He's not sure why he's crying but there's nothing he can do but watch as he sobs and shakes at the kitchen table while he waits for Hakyeon to come over. It takes him about twenty minutes to drive over and Wonshik is still crying when he knocks on the door. For some reason, Wonshik freezes and glances towards the fridge, so Taekwoon tries to offer him comfort by assuring him that it's Hakyeon at the door by spelling out his name. 

Wonshik wipes at his eyes and shakily stands up from the table, wincing as he walks like he's only just now realizing there's pieces of glass stuck to the underside of his feet, but he walks on ahead and opens the door, red eyed and sniffling. Hakyeon looks startled to see him, but doesn't comment on it, and quietly walks inside. He begins following Wonshik inside but stops in the middle of the living room, looking wide eyed from Wonshik's bloody footprints, to the broken glass on the floor, to how his name is spelled out with magnetic letters on the fridge. He quickly composes himself however, and rushes to the bathroom, coming back with tweezers, gauze and some cotton. 

Hakyeon sits himself opposite Wonshik and speaks gently to him. "Kim Wonshik, was it? Okay, first of all, let me take care of your feet. You have to be careful around broken glass, there's usually a lot of tiny pieces you can't really see that can injure you." 

Wonshik lets him pick up his leg and place it on his thigh, and only winces when he starts to pull out the pieces. "Did she do that?" Hakyeon asks, and Wonshik shakes his head. "Did you do that?" Hakyeon asks then, but again, Wonshik shakes his head, but stops abruptly, eyes widening a little. Hakyeon looks at him curiously, but doesn't push it. Instead he just hums and focuses on patching up his feet instead. 

"What do you need help with, Wonshik?" Hakyeon asks, and catches how Wonshik hesitates. "It's okay, you can talk to me. I'm here to help, I just need to know what you need help with so that I can help you." 

"I-," Wonshik hesitates, wiping away at his eyes a little, and continues quietly, sounding so small and broken. "I feel like shit. I feel so horrible. I-I want to leave, but I can't. I have a job but - I don't have any money, it all goes to help pay with rent, and I don't - I don't have any friends or family or anyone I can go to, but even if I did, I know she'd track me down and beg me to come back and I'd give in and forgive her and go back to this, but I don't want to - I don't want to live like this, I don't want to..." 

Wonshik's words trail away into a sob as he starts to cry again, but this time, he covers his face with his hands, not wanting Hakyeon to see him like this. Hakyeon puts a little more urgency into picking out the pieces of glass from his feet and wrapping them up with gauze, because once he finishes, he places his feet gently down and moves in closer to Wonshik so that he can wrap his arms around him and pull him tighter to his chest for comfort. Wonshik gladly accepts the embrace, wrapping his arms around Hakyeon and holds onto him tightly. 

"You can come home with me - you can stay there until you get back on your feet, okay? We can talk there better and figure out what's the best thing to do, but I'll do everything I can to keep her from you, okay? You deserve to feel good - you deserve to be with someone who makes you feel good. It's going to be okay, alright? Stay with me for as long as you need, everything's going to be okay." 

Wonshik doesn't cry for as long, thanks to the comfort he got from Hakyeon, and agrees to leave with him. They hastily take a few essentials and place them in a bag and after that, they're ready to leave. Wonshik limps a little as he walks but Hakyeon just stays by his side, supporting him in case he needs to. It feels good to see Wonshik leave, but Taekwoon can't help but feel a little regret, seeing him leave and being unable to follow. 

He takes his form in the reflection of the window, watching as the two walk down the stairs and to the parking lot. Halfway to the car Wonshik stops, while Hakyeon continues ahead, and turns around, looking directly at Taekwoon. He smiles and mouths something that looks like a _thank you_ , but then Hakyeon turns around, so Taekwoon makes himself disappear before Hakyeon has the chance to see him. He gently calls out Wonshik's name, who turns around, and enters the car, driving away from the apartment, away from Taekwoon, away from ruin and towards a better place.

It feels empty once he's left and leaves Taekwoon feeling a little uneasy, but he knows that was the right thing to do. A dark part of him, a disgusting, dark part of him has to admit that he would have enjoyed the company of another spirit or demon or whatever the hell he is, but he knows the price for that, and wouldn't have been willing to stand by and let that happen, which is why he urged Wonshik to get out of there. 

A few hours later, she comes home. She sees the house in a disarray and instantly rushes towards the bathroom and Taekwoon feels sick in his stomach knowing that that's the first place she looks because that's where she found Taekwoon's lifeless body. She looks in the bedroom too but returns to the living room and looks strangely distressed. The letters on the fridge no longer form Hakyeon's name, but instead have been arranged into the word, _'leave'_. She doesn't pay it much mind but instantly reaches for her phone and calls Wonshik's number, which surprisingly enough, picks up. 

Thankfully, the phone call is short, with Wonshik stiffly and firmly letting her know that their relationship is over. She absolutely loses her mind, starts screaming at him, but Wonshik hangs up, cutting her words shut, and she spends the next few hours trying to reach Wonshik but to no avail. 

The next couple of days are spent with her frantically trying to reach Wonshik but never getting through to him. She leaves the apartment several times in desperation, but comes home disappointed each time. Shortly after that, Hongbin and another man, which Taekwoon learns is named Jaehwan and is Wonshik's co-worker, come over to the apartment to pick up the rest of Wonshik's belongings. She follows them around the entire time, crying and begging them to tell her where Wonshik is, that she misses him and wants to make it up to him and that she's sorry, but Hongbin gives her nothing but silence and icy looks, while Jaehwan makes comments here and there implying that their relationship is over and maybe she should have treated him better. When she realizes it's not working, she starts getting angry, and begins to imply that Wonshik was the one who was abusing her, but they give her no doubt nor pity. 

When they leave, Hongbin almost threatens her, warning her to stay away from Wonshik, and she starts yelling at him that she's going to call the cops on him, but he doesn't pay her any mind and she never does. 

For a week or so, she's completely obsessed with getting through to Wonshik, but then she starts to lose interest, and little by little, she begins to move on, like she'd done with Taekwoon. He begins tormenting her a little in the form of what he did when her relationship with Wonshik was fresh, but doesn't have to do so for long, because she eventually becomes unable to afford the apartment, and moves out.

A lovely, young couple moves into the apartment, and Taekwoon is still stuck there. He's not sure what he needs to do in order to move on, and due to that, he remains stuck, confined to the walls of the apartment. Watching the couple is far more lovely than watching her slowly kill Wonshik, but he still feels some form of resentment bubbling up inside him as he watches the lovely couple behave like normal, loving individuals. They fight from time to time, but they always apologize to one another and make up. 

Taekwoon doesn't do it too often, but when he feels the need to let out some of the resentment, or when he's simply just bored, he will occasionally push over an object and make it drop to the ground, or he'll shut windows or doors at a random, and at one point, he even made a pipe burst. The couple just blamed it on bad luck and the draft and happily moved on with their lives. 

Two years pass and the woman falls pregnant. The man is ecstatic and they start talking about their future more seriously, which includes getting a bigger housing to raise their children in. They start looking for a place and soon settle on a nice and affordable house. 

It's sad to watch them pack up their bags with smiles on their faces, excited for what is about to come in the future. It also makes Taekwoon angry to know that they can move on and be happy with one another and raise a family together and die by each other's side only to be reunited in the afterlife, but there is nothing, nothing Taekwoon can do to move on - he's stuck to this apartment he died in with no means of leaving or communicating with the residents without having them think they're going crazy. 

The couple moves out the last of their things and leave Taekwoon alone in an empty apartment for a while. A week or so passes when the door opens again and Kim Wonshik walks back inside. His hair is back to blonde, he looks well rested and healthy, content, and happy, even. Both Hongbin and Hakyeon are trailing behind him, and help him carry in furniture, while Taekwoon silently watches, not really believing that Wonshik is moving back in. 

Neither does Hakyeon. "Are you sure this is a good idea, Wonshik?"

"Lots of memories tied to this place." Hongbin comments. 

"Yeah, I'm sure." Wonshik tells them, and flashes them a smile. It seems to ease Hongbin, but Hakyeon isn't so convinced. Despite that, he stays silent, and they continue getting him settled in. 

The apartment is relatively cozy once everything is ready. Wonshik has a lot of instruments to compose music with, some gaming consoles, and he even has magnetic letters and numbers he places on the fridge, but Taekwoon doesn't touch them. He's also out of the apartment a lot, both for work and for meeting up with friends, and he frequently has people over. He seems a lot more happy and it makes Taekwoon feel a lot better to see him in this state. 

A month flies by and Taekwoon keeps his presence a secret for the most part. He doesn't throw things around nor does he write out any messages, but he always takes his form in the corner of the bedroom, and Wonshik keeps looking over at him. 

An opportunity to communicate casually arises, as casually as a demon can be, when Wonshik is taking a shower one morning. His showers are always very quick, so he doesn't fog up the mirror, making it incapable of Taekwoon to write into the fog, but instead, he goes for the only other substance he can and writes with blood. Wonshik is a startled when he sees the mirror, but recovers very quickly, looking strangely relieved. 

_'Remember you're meeting up with Hongbin for drinks tonight at eight.'_

"Thank you, Taekwoon." Wonshik speaks out, a small smile creeping up to his lips. He moves from the bathroom and to the bedroom to get himself dressed, and then moves towards the kitchen for some breakfast, the letters on the fridge now arranged to write out, _'You're welcome'_.

Hell is purgatory, but maybe living like this isn't all too bad. 

At least Taekwoon isn't alone anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> not included in the fic since it would mess up the it's from taekwoon's perspective narrative - wonshik, hakyeon, hongbin and jaehwan becoming a small lil group of friends and sanghyuk having a very awkward re-encounter with wonshik as he gets introduced to their group of friends as one of their boyfriends. which one? pick a pairing, choose your own path. walk in the gay forest, it's magical.


End file.
